A proper approach to selling should be energy positive. It should be sustainable. And it should be fun – even when you lose. And that, to me, is the test: how do you feel after you don’t win an opportunity? Are you depleted or are you charged by the interchange and the progress you’ve made? Are you left mourning the loss and regretting the expense or are you left thinking you’re one step closer to being hired by this client in the future? If the engagement was a disaster waiting to happen did you walk away calmly and take some joy in the carnage about to be caused to your less discerning, over-eager competitor, or did you ride it out right to the messy end, all the way hoping the warning signs weren’t real?

Early in my agency career, when I was young, stupid(er) and full of energy, I loved the buzz of the chase and the thrill of the pitch. At least I loved it for a short period of time. In truth it was emotionally and physically taxing but the occasional win bought back some of the spent energy and allowed me to keep going for awhile longer. In moments immediately following those wins I would probably even claim that I was energized by the process. String together a few losses however or fast forward a few years and it’s hard to deny that the late nights, spent psychic energy and emotional roller-coaster of the pitch is ultimately energy-depleting and difficult to sustain.

As I think about it today I draw parallels to gambling. We’ve all met someone who regularly plays cards, slots or maybe the lottery and claims to be winning. They are winning, on occasion, and it’s that occasional win that keeps them going back to bet again. We know intuitively however that in the big picture and over the long haul they are almost certainly not winning – the system is rigged toward the house and the longer someone plays the more likely their results will revert to the mean, which depending on the game and the house correlates to a loss of between 2% and 20% of everything they bet, over the long term. (Yes, a small number of people have figured out how to beat the system but we both know your crazy Aunt Betty is spending way more grocery money on lottery tickets than she’s letting on.) Some of these ‘winning’ gamblers are addicted, in denial and approaching catastrophic failure. But I digress.

Just as hitting the occasional jackpot at the slots almost never equates to building wealth, the energy gained from winning a pitch only briefly masks the truth that over time a pitch-based approach to new business is expensive by any measure, including joy.

Selling should be fun – it can be fun – and I mean over the long haul, not in fits and starts that coincide with your occasional wins. If it’s not fun you’re not doing it right, and if you’re not doing it right, you’re not likely to last.

How to Do It Right
Here are three pieces of advice to help keep selling fun, and therefore sustainable, the next time you engage with a prospective client.

1. Remember: It’s a Game
As I’ve said many times, business development is but a game and the game goes by the name The Polite Battle for Control. The name describes the easy, polite jostling that you undertake at the very beginning of the interaction and as long as necessary afterward to claim the high ground in the relationship – the point at which you go from being seen as a vendor to being seen as a professional practitioner. (The moment you achieve this high ground is known as The Flip, which I wrote about last week.)

Games are meant to be fun. The Polite Battle for Control is fun because your game is trying to get the client to change the rules to their game. By affecting the buying process thusly you dramatically increase your odds of winning. If you can impact the process then you proceed; if you cannot you politely walk away in search of another game where you can get the rules changed. Walking away in this manner should enhance your desirability or at least mystery and preserve or even improve future opportunities with that client.

2. FOM
Focus On the Mission. Your mission, in each and every sales interaction, is to position yourself and your firm as the expert practitioner. You don’t sacrifice your mission for anything, ever. Not money. Not glory. Nothing.

While your objective in these interactions is usually to determine if there’s a fit suitable enough to move forward, it’s never achieved at the sacrifice of your mission.

A very successful agency principal once told me a story of her dream client that she had long coveted but had never closed. One day she got a call from them. “I’m calling from the marketing commodity purchasing department,” said the voice on the phone. Seeing the writing on the wall, the agency principal sighed, said, “Well then you’re calling the wrong firm,” said a polite goodbye and hung up.

Her focus was on the long view – being sure her firm, if hired, was able to bring their expertise to bear to create meaningful value for the client. She couldn’t possibly do this by beginning a relationship with her dream client by going in though the commodity purchasing door.

Let your mission guide you and you will be better off in the long run. Focusing on the mission gives you more freedom to play the game.

3. Don’t Over Invest
More than anything else, the energy drain you experience when losing a deal is born in your over-allocation of resources of all types. A pitch-based approach to selling is built around such over allocation, even when no spec creative is being presented. Doing unpaid research on the client’s situation, building decks, travelling to meetings, presenting, thinking too far ahead to how transformative the client would be for your firm – these are some of the ways we over invest in the sale, communicate to the client our lowly position of vendor, and set ourselves up for a crash.

All these forms of over investment can feel energizing and dangerously addictive in the moment and so the temptation to rationalize them as necessary is significant, but it only takes a few successive losses for us to see the waste they represent.

Playing the game begins with saying no to such investments (which are not investments at all but speculations) and offering alternative paths forward. The act of gaining such a concession is the act of improving your odds of winning. It is the beginning of The Flip.

In the end the games you end up playing are the ones where you are able to change the rules, where you value your mission over any tactical objective and where you don’t over invest in the deal. Use those criteria and you’ll win more opportunities and still have fun on the few you don’t win.

New Toys Equals a New Type of Fun
A few days before my oldest son’s tenth birthday we found him in tears. He was dreading turning ten, he finally said through the sobs, because he believed that getting older meant leaving toys behind. I smiled and agreed that as he aged his toys would change but I also promised him that the toys just got better and better. (He didn’t believe me then, but now, ten years later, I’m sure he wouldn’t trade his bikes, skis and electronics for his old Lego.)

When you’re young and trading on personality or your ability to command a room, the pitch can be a lot of fun, but the price you pay for each one catches up to you in the end. The good news is there are other ways to have fun – there are other toys. They are a whole lot more sustainable and even more fun than the pitch.

My friend Tim Williams @ Ignition Consulting Group posted this today. Worth reading and assimilating as you consider describing your firm to prospects.

“If every agency on the planet is a “full-service, integrated marketing communications firm” (like they say they are), why do clients chronically complain about the lack of integration from their agencies?

Unfortunately, just because agencies have a long list of disciplines doesn’t mean they have the discipline to make them all work together. It’s more likely they have sewn together a Frankenstein that is less, not more, than the sum of its parts.

Lee Clow of TBWA/Chiat/Day once raised a very thought-provoking question. He wondered, if agencies agree that the consumer decision-making process is complex and emotional, why is the process we use to develop our messages to consumers so structured and rational?

In other words, crafting a message that will speak meaningfully to that complex animal we call a consumer isn’t just a matter of going through the sequence that begins with opening a job and ends with emailing a PDF to the client. Yet, sadly enough, that’s how it works a lot of the time in a lot of agencies.

The process we use to develop marketing solutions needs to be much, much more interactive between internal groups in the firm. For one thing, this means replacing “meetings” with a more productive way of working together – like the daily “scrums” (brief, stand-up sessions) used by organizations that follow agile methodologies.

It also means finding a way to get everyone excited about contributing. Interaction is as important in agencies as it is in sports. Can you imagine a football game in which the game begins with a briefing by the coach, but then the team never huddles one single time during the entire game? The quarterback does his best, the receivers do their best, the front line does their best, but they never stop to huddle, talk about the game, and make changes to the game plan.

That’s what we agencies do all the time, day after day. We have a creative brief, but no briefing. Concepts, but no concept review sessions. We don’t stop often enough to huddle.

One more team member

Has this ever happened at your firm? After weeks of late nights and Chinese take-out, the creative team is finally ready to present their recommendations for the new campaign. Their enthusiasm turns to disappointment when the client approves the weakest idea of the bunch instead of the strongest. Should they have presented with more conviction? Defended with more courage?

Very often, the best ideas are lost because the client was involved only at the end of the process – not the beginning. Clients aren’t given an opportunity to feel ownership in an idea. Instead, they are kept at a safe distance from the rogue creative minds of the agency. They are barred from seeing the rough ideas pinned up in the agency’s inner sanctum, and instead are shown highly polished concepts in the sterile environment of a conference room. They have no idea how the agency got from point A to point B, and they have little appreciation for all the ideas that were considered but discarded.

Why? Because they weren’t there. They weren’t involved. They weren’t asked for their opinion, their perspective, or their feedback until the whole process was over. Is it any wonder that clients feel a lack of partnership with their agencies?

Many agencies also keep the client at an unnecessary distance through an unhealthy dependence on the client service team to get work and recommendations presented and approved. As long as the account manager is the sole ambassador of the agency – shuttling work back and forth – other members of the team will have little empathy for what the client wants to do differently and why.

Remember that true integration includes one other important team member: the client.

Integration is something you do, not something you sell

Let’s also define what integration is not. Being integrated doesn’t mean that your agency offers every agency service imaginable. Not only is this unbelievable (from a client perspective), it’s also quite impossible.

Agencies become famous by focusing on what they do best.  My friend, the talented creative coach Tom Monahan, calls this “playing within your game.” Tom observes that “Some of the best athletes in the world are great because they play within their game. Some of the best singers and musicians are great because they don’t try to do things they can’t do.”

Bartle Bogle Hegarty co-founder Sir John Hegarty says BBH owes a lot of its success to sticking to what it does best. “The trouble with agencies,” says Hegarty, “is they don’t limit themselves to what they’re good at.”

In the end, integration is more about how you work than anything else. It’s no coincidence that the A-list agencies are characterized much more by their ability to effectively integrate internally than by their ability to offer “everything” as a service. In fact, most of them don’t.”
_____________________________________

Tim Williams leads Ignition Consulting Group, a consultancy devoted to helping agencies and other professional services firms create and capture more value.

Our business colleague Mike Carlton struck a nerve with his piece today. It’s so important and such a critical element in the process of conducting an “agency search” that it deserves exposure here. Read to the end – there you will find my comments and suggestion as a result of performing thousands of agency searches for clients (advertisers) over 18 years …

Mike begins … What’s In a Name?

Juliet, in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet proclaimed; “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”

Not so long ago the American Association of Advertising Agencies announced that henceforth it would be officially called by its long-standing acronym, the “4As.”

In a stroke, the venerable industry association, which since 1917 has ably represented the interests of advertising agencies, was removing the words “advertising agencies” from its name.

Is this rebranding just an effort to simplify its handle? Or is it a reflection of more profound underlying changes in the marketplace?

Has the name “advertising agency” lost its relevance? And if so, by what name should they be called?

Definitions

My 40 year old desk dictionary has this definition:

“An advertising agency is a business that creates and issues advertising for its clients.”

That’s it. Pretty simple. And probably quite appropriate for its time.

Today, Wikipedia has an expanded definition:

“An advertising agency is a service business dedicated to creating, planning and handling advertising (and sometimes other forms of promotion) for its clients. An agency can also handle overall marketing and branding strategies and sales promotion.”

And then, continuing under the heading of Advertising Agencies, Wikipedia goes on for ten more pages defining; Full-Service Agencies, Creative Agencies, Specialist Advertising Agencies, Interactive Agencies, Search Engine Agencies, Social Media Agencies and a bunch of more kinds of agencies.

But, perhaps not surprisingly, they keep Public Relations Firms, Direct Marketing Firms, Branding Agencies, Design Firms each under their own separate headings. Not connected at all to the Advertising Agency heading.

And what’s more, Wikipedia does not have separate listings at all for Market Communications Firms, Media Buying Agencies, Digital Advertising Agencies, Creative Collaboratives, Integrated Advertising Agencies, Idea Factories or Marketing Architecture Firms.

Obviously, agencies have a big category mess on their hands. No, maybe it is more like a category train wreck. What was quite clear and simple a few decades ago has fragmented in to a whole bunch of disparate and often overlapping pieces.

No wonder there is confusion. The words “advertising agency” once represented a precise category. But it sure doesn’t look that way today.

The Difference between DO and HOW

That raises the age-old question; Are we best known by what we DO (what we accomplish) or by HOW we do it? (the tools used)

The answer to this question is important because there is a strong common thread among all of the above businesses in what they DO (what they accomplish).

But there is great difference in HOW they do it (the tools used).

The Common Thread

All of these firms (and their categories and sub-categories) exist for just one reason; To influence the behaviors of consumers (B to B as well) for the benefit of the client marketer, the consumer herself and society as a whole. That’s it.

When you scratch through it all, every one of these businesses is fundamentally in the behavior modification business. That’s the only reason why marketers pay for their services.

So ultimately, all are in the same big category. It just doesn’t have a generally accepted name.

Advertising Agency Etymology

That leads to the questions; How did the name advertising agency come to be? And how has its meaning evolved?

Let’s start with the word “agent.” From a legal point of view an agent is:

“One who is authorized to act on behalf of another (called the principal) to create a legal relationship with a third party.”

An agency is, of course, a business organization which performs on a generally larger and more complex scale the practical and legal functions of an agent.

So, where did agencies come from?

The first advertising agencies started about 150 years ago. They began as sellers of advertising space for newspapers (and a few early magazines) – really the only commercial media available at that time. And newspapers paid agencies a commission for selling that space and assuming advertiser credit risk.

They were in fact and in deed sales agents of newspaper advertising, thus being known descriptively and accurately as “advertising agencies.”

Creating the Ads

But there was a problem. Newspapers didn’t want the responsibility of creating the advertisements that were to fill the space the agencies sold. So, agencies moved into that void and not only sold the space and guaranteed the credit, they also created the ads that would fill the space.

A simple business proposition.

But developing the advertising strategy, the layout design, the copy and then producing the ad itself moved the agencies a lot closer to the marketer. And soon, in an unusual twist on agency practice, they became positioned as the agent of the marketer rather than the agent of the newspaper.

So, the marketer became the principal (the client) and the agency owed its primary allegiance to that marketer client, even though the agency continued to be paid a commission from the newspaper. Thus these young service businesses became advertising agencies for their clients.

The words “advertising agency” continued to be perfectly descriptive. And perfectly comprehensive.

But Things Change

As time went by, in their special relationship with clients, advertising agencies began doing things for those clients in addition to just media advertising. They created brochures and bought printing. They undertook sales promotion activities. Originated designs, illustrations and logos. Sometimes they performed public relations services, too.

In some of these services they acted as legal agents, like when they were buying media, printing, etc. for their clients.

But sometimes they acted as advisors or consultants, for which they were paid a fee for the services they performed.

And sometimes they just acted as vendors when they sold the client something for a fixed, all inclusive, price.

What had started out as a simple business model became increasingly fuzzy.

Fast-Forward to Today

Ways to reach and influence the consumer have grown exponentially. The advent of the internet and the wide range of new media employed have further complicated things.

While the literal, traditional, meaning of the words “advertising agency” apply for some of the services provided, in lots of instances the work is not advertising and the relationship with the client is not that of an agent.

And to confuse matters even more, a host of other kinds of firms have sprung up (many of which are owned or financed by agencies or agency holding companies) which don’t call themselves advertising agencies but provide related services designed to influence the marketer’s consumers. And in some cases, these new players create and place advertising itself.

And in doing so are actually acting as legal agents of the client principal.

Wow! The waters have indeed become muddy.

Umbrella Category

Wouldn’t it be nice if there were an umbrella category with a simple, descriptive name that all of the various businesses serving marketers could be under? One that embraced advertising agencies, PR firms, emarketing companies, design studios, and digital firms, analytics specialists, etc, etc. Wouldn’t that make it easier for marketers and the service providing firms themselves?

It sure would. But it is not likely to happen.

And as Dusty Springfield’s song goes, “Wishin’ and Hopin’ and Thinkin’ and Prayin’ will not get you there.” There has to be another way.

In The Eyes of the Beholder

But wait. Language is a living thing. And meanings are constantly changing. Evolving meanings come from the marketplace, not from learned authorities. And the power of the folks in the marketplace to shape those meanings is gaining strength every day.

After all, isn’t that what social media is all about, anyway?

So in light of this, what meaning do most marketers today ascribe to the name advertising agencies? And what might their understanding of that meaning be in the future?

Nothing is For Sure

Of course the problem with market driven meanings is that there is no specific, 100% agreement. Each person holds a slightly different view. Kind of like a continuum in which opinions at the extremes may be dramatically different but there usually are big, statistically significant, clusters scattered along that continuum. And while those clusters are usually slowly moving and constantly reforming they do provide some insight to current meanings.

So let’s explore the meanings of the words advertising agencies, as well as PR firms, digital and social marketing firms, etc., within the context of a big continuum populated by the opinions of marketing executives.

Now, it would be great if there was a reliable study to answer that question. One that is widely accepted showing where executives in this continuum stand on the meaning of the words advertising agency. But there isn’t.

So we don’t have a respected authority to look to for a definitive, statistically accurate picture of how that continuum looks today. Nor the precise shape, location or movement of the various clusters.

But there are some helpful tangential studies and, of course, lots of anecdotal evidence. Based on those sources here are some thoughts.

Beliefs

There is likely to be little argument to the belief that the majority of marketing executives view advertising agencies as providing many more services than just advertising. Most are not stuck in that narrow, literal view. They have a much broader perspective than that.

And that very few actually think much about the legal implications of the word agency. They view advertising agencies as providers of an increasingly broad range of helpful services. And not infrequently they use that dreaded word “vendor” when categorizing advertising agencies.

However, as a Forrester study points out, many senior executives consider advertising agencies excellent at creating and placing advertising but not as strong as they should be in big data digital and other forms of new media.

These important influences apparently believe that advertising agencies as a group have not embraced non-traditional ways of influencing customer behavior as quickly or effectively as they would like. And this has opened their consideration to providers outside the traditional advertising agency category.

Obviously, each agency is different. And the speed and effectiveness with which each has embraced new tools and techniques is different.

But the overall view that Forrester reflects matches lots of anecdotal evidence. Thus, the advertising agency category is frequently painted with this broad brush.

The Agency Conundrum

In addition, some agencies are caught in a trap. A trap largely of their own making. Much of their income comes from hourly charges for creating and producing advertising. And many have become addicted to the revenue that work generates.

At the same time many are not adequately paid for their strategic contributions to client success. Nor have they figured out how to effectively monetize the use of new tools and techniques, particularly in the digital and social world.

This is a tough spot to get out of. But not an impossible one.

A vanguard of progressive advertising agencies are demonstrating powerful chops in digital, social media and promotional PR. And in doing so are effectively and efficiently changing the behavior of their clients’ consumers and being fairly rewarded in the process.

And at the same time expanding the definition of the words advertising agency. At least as that category relates to their specific agency.

The Flip Side

Concurrent with the expansion of services from the advertising agency side, many PR firms, digital and interactive organizations (and other new media service providers) are expanding into the arena that was once the sole province of advertising agencies.

In fact, only a few years ago it was common for new media firms to be primarily technologically driven. While today, it is increasingly likely for them to be much more concerned with the psychological implications of how the user interacts with their technology.

A very significant and very unifying shift.

We Are One

Remember, regardless of what a firm in this broad continuum is called, we are on one unified mission. To change consumer behavior for the benefit of our client, the individual consumer and society as a whole. Often using different tools, but with the same outcome in mind.

We have more in common than that which separates us. And in that truth lies the way forward.

There is no prescribed solution to this category name issue. Nor will there be. Nor should there be.

The language and the business models will be defined by the marketplace. Success in that marketplace will determine the definitions that grow. As well as those that decline.

So, the meaning of the words “advertising agency” may continue to expand. Or it may change. Or just drift away. Same is true for the words “PR firm,” ‘digital agency,” etc., etc.

And, an umbrella category may never materialize. But that’s OK.

Whatever Works!

Every firm in this broad category, whether it began as an advertising agency, or a PR firm, or a digital shop, or a sales promotion business, etc. will be judged not by its category but by how well it accomplishes the objective of influencing consumer behaviors for its clients. The value it brings those clients.

What it chooses to call itself is less important than what it accomplishes. And the perceived value that marketing executives attribute to that firm.

When you think of it in this light it is a much simpler, and less parochial, way of moving forward. And it is certainly in keeping with respecting definitions determined in the free marketplace.

The Wisdom of Juliet

She reminded us that the essence of the rose is that it pleases our sense of smell. That’s what is important. How it does that or what it is called is unimportant. It works the same for your business, too.

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Now let me jump back in. I can’t begin to count how many times our “agencies” have asked us what they should call themselves. Surely there are some agencies that have adopted what they thought were clever names, seeking to differentiate themselves from the lot. Names like Flower Garden, Mighty Mechanics, Brain Teasers. I contend and have so all along that like Mike suggests, they are what they are perceived to be. When advertisers (searchers) come to us, they aren’t looking for an ad agency, an integrated marketing communications firm, a social media firm, a pr firm or a Yellow Submarine. They’re looking for a marketing partner who can help manage their marketing and improve their business. Seldom do they come with a preconceived idea how that should be accomplished, although many do know of the various services and media iterations.

We have chosen to blend them into one category – we call them ‘Marketing Firms.’ We try to use that language in our press releases and in general conversation and copy. With newly-registeted clients, we go for the jugular; we ask what services they think they might require, but most importantly, what do they want the “agency” to accomplish for them? That’s how we see it; how about you?

Sincerely,

Chuck Meyst, Chairman & CEO

AgencyFinder.com

 

Every agency has them; every agency new business consultant has them; virtually anyone who’s taken a crack at agency new business development will claim to have some. There aren’t many real secrets, but there are some simple tips worth noting and worth doing.

In the “outreach” category, you need a computer, telephone with headset, and contact management software (ACT, SalesForce, etc.) That platform will give you a place to create prospect and client databases, plus it allows you to “auto-dial” anyone in the database and record your discussion notes “on-the-fly.” It’s absolutely THE most efficient way to manage business relationships. Anything less is cheating yourself and your agency.

In the prospect “first meeting” category, if you were never in the audience for our presentation, you need to experience “The Agency Tour as a New Business Tool.” That presentation by our sister-company Sales Marketing Institute, Ltd. was being made to select agency gatherings back when AgencyFinder was born and still is. Telephone me and I’ll walk you through it.

In all your dealings with a prospect – know your agency, know your people, know what your agency has done and for whom, know what your agency can do and how, be punctual, be honest, be forthright, be sincerely enthusiastic, be inspirational. Don’t be “all that”, don’t be a bore, don’t hog the floor, don’t steal thunder from others.

Ask until you understand; then ask again. Restate what the prospect said, and look for confirmation. Don’t offer solutions until you’ve heard the problem. Don’t speculate (in their business category), but do speculate using fictitious examples to demonstrate how you think and how your agency does do things.

Be careful what you say about anyone to anyone. Assume that any two people of the opposite sex that work together are much closer than it appears. Deal or no deal!

Marketing, advertising and public relations are passionate processes. Find and pick passionate marketing partners; then have fun!

Yesterday Adweek posted an article discussing the most dangerous job at an ad agency and “new business” won! I added my two-cents and exhanges were brisk. I did some research and found I wrote this back in March 2013. In agency new business, the old is always new again …

Folks are creative by nature, but not universally comfortable with prospecting for new business by reaching out to strangers”, explains AgencyFinder’s CEO Chuck Meyst.   

 

Today’s Adweek broke a story by Maureen O’Leary that portends bad new for agency new business pros. Various recent industry surveys revealed the half-life of someone working at agency new business is measured in months, not years. The article prompted me to check Who’s Who at Campbell-Ewald in Detroit; just when I was getting to know Barbara Yolles, she’s gone! Many of our contacts there have retired or moved on. Maureen makes the point that “new business” is a risky business. So I countered with my position based on our experience here at AgencyFinder coupled with my new business consulting at Sales Marketing Institute and Sanders Consulting. I said …

Face it, new business is not a job for an agency person. Let’s stop trying to fit a square peg in a round hole. Most agency people are not fit for a new business because they’re creatives by nature and creatives flinch when their work is criticized. Imagine the internalizations when a prospect tells them to “get lost!” At VCU’s Ad Center here in Richmond, Virginia, unless things have changed, there isn’t a single course or a single semester that even introduces the critical topic “How an agency gets new business.” As in, how do we pay our bills and pay our employees. New business doesn’t “fit” an agency-trained individual and never will.

New business is a “sales job” and I’ve yet to visit an agency to see a door or department banner proclaiming “Sales Department; Sales Manager.” They prefer “Manager of Organic Growth!” Matter of fact, most agency folks cringe at the word sales yet the majority of what an agency produces is funneled into and out into the world through a sales rep (media rep) for the media of choice.

Agencies need to hire “sales people” with the assistance of qualified headhunters like Paul Gumbinner. They must bring “process” to the agency (most don’t have one to offer). The agency needs to hire a new business consultant (ask me, I can make some recommendations) to teach proactive outreach. And the agency needs to invest in what they’re told. Like the need for a developed prospect database, a computerized Contact Management software package along with an assortments of flat and dimensional mailers and conversation pieces. Finally they need an incoming opportunity source, lead generator or agency-side search consultant (as in – us) to vector in real time-sensitive opportunities.

Maybe then they will see the results they seek … I’ve volunteered it before – anyone want to join me in building a Sales university?

Thoughts from Chuck Meyst, Chairman & CEO at AgencyFinder

In a reply to a subsequent post by “Lucy” I wrote:

Lucy,

The entirety of agency new business needs more than a forum and I wasn’t suggesting “agency new business” shouldn’t include and embrace other non-sales-types at the agency. Nor do I see the first-line new business person as a “closer” or someone who does it all alone. Once the prospect’s door has been opened, then a pair (new business person + senior account person “well-versed in all there is to know about the agency and how to interview”) visit the prospect for a face-to-face sit-down.

Not enough space here to address all that is covered then, but a suggested next-step is a client visit to the agency. The “agency-tour-as-new-business-tool” was one of my lectures prior to AgencyFinder and is now an integral element in our agency search process. Walk the floor together, interview department heads where they work, let them “show & tell” and let the prospect see things lying around you wouldn’t have thought to show them. Many times those visuals helped close the business.

I could go on, but as many have already said, certainly it’s a team effort and everyone on the team needs to be trained, rehearsed and ready to integrate with the whole. If it was easy, every agency would be doing it!

 

 

 

A real question from a real agency …

Agency – When I pitch, the response I sometimes get is… …we just want a video or brochure. And what I may see is that their customer service model is FUBAR and needs to be fixed before some kind of creative should be done. Like what we do is a band-aid for their bad business practices.  Maybe I should not care, but I do. I see marketing as the total customer experience.

Advisor – In some ways, new business is like dating (remember?) You need to start slowly a little bit at a time. Having proved yourself, you are then welcome to go further … Same situation here. In any proposal, even if just for a video, make certain you note that the video in itself will only work effectively if all else is in order. Don’t accept (better to deny any responsibility for “performance”) if you have identified roadblocks.

At the same time, give them a proposal for what you believe is also needed and be specific. Make it conditional in that you’ll get the next work if they are satisfied with the first assignment (you need to identify the conditions). The agreement/contract part is all business (no creative hokey-pokey!) Make sense?

Agency Responds – (food for thought) Thanks. Very good input. I was an executive at a TV network and did a lot of entertainment industry marketing for networks and record labels when I left. A pitch there may last 3 minutes. They want to know you are competent and you can get fired if you don’t take the initiative to do it all right. You don’t wait around proving yourself; if you see a chink in the armor you take action. You don’t deny responsibility, you take action. I have found that is not the norm in most businesses, unless you are in a place like LA or NYC.

Most people choose pain over getting well. Statistics tell us people want to stay sick, believe it or not. If I have to change or die, most people choose death. – Same goes in business.

My business coach says, just hunt for those people that are authentically seeking real change or improvement at the level you/we provide; as appropriate for their situation. In other words, pre-qualify them to make sure they are ready for the change.

The flip side is that (in my eyes) the people I see making money at advertising take the work that comes in the door and if the client is screwed up, ignore it. Just take their money. A sucker is born every minute and when that company takes a dive, there is another sucker behind them to bill. Just keep doing really pretty creative and billing. – Silly me, I was on the other side of the table wanting something tangible for my money. I want to give them stellar results.  It is one of the reasons, we mostly pay for results based marketing.

Maybe I am wrong.

 

 

 

When summer rolls around, most agencies used to resort to half-days on Friday and straggle in late on Mondays. That was true in them good olde days. But in this economy, with agencies running at full capacity with overworked staff, that custom isn’t as prevalent today.

But how about your agency? Are you running a lean week? Are you looking for prospects on the beach, at the river, at the cottage, at the lake? Or sitting near you at a Charlotte NASCAR event? Or are you (or someone assigned) plugging away on the phone, sending e-mails or mailing tchotchkes or rubber chickens with a clever letter?

What’s working for you?

Let’s talk about media agnostics … We work day and night here in Richmond with a client in Philadelphia, (for example) to help them identify, evaluate and then tell us who to invite as candidates to handle their amazing account. Over the years, we’ve perfected a process that begins with an e-mail alert to each intended agency – to the primary plus alternate new business contacts (as listed in your profile). That alert includes client name, location and URL. Our next step is to send the full RFD (Request for Dialogue) via fax.

Why fax? Because the invitation is a collection of documents originating from different sources and for us, it’s easiest to aggregate them and send via a plain-paper fax machine. Yes, we know some tell us “no one uses fax anymore” yet surprisingly, some in New York who say that have a fax address prominently posted at Contact Us on their own website.

So tell us; what’s the best way and when to contact you? We know you are often out of the office, in meetings or on the phone. We know you carry Smart Phones and check them wherever you are at whatever time you decide. But when new business is on deck, we need to reach you and you need to be reached – if new clients and new business are on your radar!

 

 

July 16th we called your attention to some important changes and additions to our database and your profile. It read:

Important Database Additions: We recently added some new Fields Served, then removed some as well. Same is true for Services Offered. Clients are now selecting from those, so if you haven’t claimed them, you’ll be overlooked. You are urged to check & update your profile. (see below)

Your data must be both current and complete. By example, we added “Cloud service vendors” to Fields Served and OOH (Out of Home) and Shopper marketing to Services Offered. These and others were also added to the client side (where the Client specifies what they want from their new agency). If a client includes any of these in the search criteria and you have the experience or offer the services (but you’ve failed to update your profile) you are automatically and absolutely eliminated as a candidate.

We’ll do our part, but please do yours and update!